My Big Trip: Shark Bay

5.05

The one thing to do in Monkey Mia is the Dolphins Experience.

It’s started in the 1960s, when fisherman started sharing their catches with local dolphins. Over the years, the dolphin’s trust grew and several more were fed at the jetty and later at the beach. It became a phenomenon and more and more visitor started to come there for it. It was good for the tourism, but it became bad for the dolphins. Rangers started noticing that a lot of the dolphins became dependant of people feeding them. It was worst for the females, who spent more time looking for people than taking care of their babies and teaching to survive on their own.

That’s when they introduced rules. As for today, the dolphins can only be fed three times a day, between 8-12am and it can not take more than 30min at the time, not keeping them for too long. They only received a small amount of food, just a snack, and as soon as they received their food, they are gone.

There usually is the same five females that come, accompanied of their calf. You never know how many are going to show up and at what time. The experience is based on the willing of the dolphins to come on their own timing, so be ready to be at the beach for a while :).

Here is how is works: the rangers lined us up on the beach and we waited for one of the mum to come around. At that point, we went in the water ankle deep, which mean for them that we are waiting for them. Once they brought the fish on the beach, we had to get out of the water, which mean for them that we are ready to feed them, and it’s when they actually come to shore. At that point, the rangers choose a few people in the crowed to feed them. It was my lucky day, because I got picked and been able to come close to one and give her a fish. It was quick and might sound like a childish thing to do, but I loved it!! I never though I would be one the of person to be chosen, so it made it even more special to me.

So after a such good start of my day, I decided to go to Eagle Lookout, south of Denham, from where you should “always” be able to see sharks. Well, I think my luck went away, because I stayed there for almost an hour, and didn’t see a thing.

From there, I went to the Ocean Park Aquarium. At first, I didn’t wanted to go, but I was told that it wasn’t like a regular aquarium, more like a rescue place and you get a guided tour with marine biologics. I don’t regret changing my mind. It was really interesting, I learned a lot about the wildlife of the bay.

Then I went back to Monkey Mia and went for a walk on the beach. And my luck was back!! I saw a sea turtle, some giant stingrays and some more dolphins :)

And for the evening, I went to a Campfire and Didgeridoo Night Tour.

We spend more than two hour by a campfire with an aboriginal man. He taught us about his people, their way of living and laws. We cooked some fishes, whole with the guts, right on the fire. It was a great experience, could have stayed there listening to him for hours, soo interesting!!